DIY = Do-It-Yourself. DIY film = low budget indie films made and distributed by the filmmaker. This is a blog by independent filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake. 2018 films - Werewolf Ninja Philosopher, Breakthrough Weekend, Brooklyn Fantastic, Agnes the Alien. Blog active since 2006, with posts on cinema, NYC, positive news, various other concerns. Indie film can save the world (or at least entertain a part of it :) ).

Saturday, February 10, 2007

So, self-distribution in 2006: how did it go?

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2/6/06 (date started, updated after that as noted):

I definitely think it was a success, an exciting new development in US indie film. 'cause to me it looks like indie filmmakers embraced self-distribution at a greater number than ever before (since the birth of the new wave of US indie with Stranger Than Paradise in '84) AND had a few instances of success (depending on how u define it; but Head Trauma & Mutual Appreciation became well known among & available to their target audiences in '06 through self-distribution, to mention just 2 projects) AND self-distro also spilled over to Lynchland with INLAND EMPIRE. But I want to know what others who care about this topic think; let the discussion begin. I already sent an e-mail to one David Lowery, filmmaker, gentleman & Texas mischief maker, inviting him to weigh in on the '06 self-distro events, perhaps he will (a few of us had a long conversation about self-distribution at David's blog in early '06). So filmmakers & fans, let me know what you think about the subject: was self-distribution a successful move made by indie filmmakers in '06? What is the future of self-distribution? Share.

2/7/07 update:

Several hundred D.I.Y. screenings happened last year, serving several thousandaudience members throughout the US. In the coming days I will point to several links where we can figure out where many of the screenings happened & which indie films were self-distributed in '06.

Here are some easy figures & a link (since the info. is in my head): Date Number One was screened in 5 cities (Washington, DC, New York City, Seattle, Kensington, MD, Takoma Park, MD), 12 times all together, and about 500 audience members in total checked out the movie at those screenings.

Links & whatever info. I can gather from the web re: several other '06 self-distributed films coming soon.

Here's a good place to follow up, a dozen or so important links there:

" Overall 2006 was an amazing year for me. HEAD TRAUMA had theatrical runs in 17 cities and multiple festival screenings.

Going from a world premiere at the LA Film Festival to a theatrical run 5 weeks later turned out to be a great strategy. I called it a compressed release and it helped me to leverage a ton of press for the movie. Over 100 reviews, lots of interviews and 8 national publications carried feature stories about HT.

It was a blur - being the booker, publicist, traveling to each city was fun and exhausting all at the same time.

The DVD hit stores and rental outlets in late September and the sales have been awesome!

I'm in the process of finalizing some world sales and the movie is being considered for a number of TV and VOD ops in the US.

The year ended on a high note as HT was listed on 8 top 10 lists for 2006 and was named the "best indie feature" of 2006 by Rue Morgue Magazine's staff and readership.

The self distro and the making of HT has opened a ton of doors for me. I'm currently working on two new scripts and have a tv show in development.

In the process of releasing HT, I decided to share some of the experience. I created a social open source project called the Workbook Project workbookproject.com to help bridge the gap between tech and filmmaking. One of the projects main goals is to show filmmakers how they can build their own audiences, which in turns helps them to promote and distribute their work. One of the main features of the workbook project is a podcast called "this conference is being recorded." I do a new edition every week and this past week featured episode 11. It was interesting story that sums up the current state of independent film in the US. M dot Strange and his DIY HD animated feature "We Are The Strange" had a world premiere at Sundance and well you gotta listen to believe what happened.

2007 is off to a great start. This weekend I fly to the Berlin International Film Festival, where I'll be speaking about the DIY experience and also staging a special screening of HT. Then I'm off to SXSW and a slew of special screenings where musicians score the movie live in a remix version the movie.

I think 2007 is going to be an amazing year for DIY filmmaking and distro and I can't wait to see what happens.

2 comments:

Overall 2006 was an amazing year for me. HEAD TRAUMA had theatrical runs in 17 cities and multiple festival screenings.

Going from a world premiere at the LA Film Festival to a theatrical run 5 weeks later turned out to be a great strategy. I called it a compressed release and it helped me to leverage a ton of press for the movie. Over 100 reviews, lots of interviews and 8 national publications carried feature stories about HT.

It was a blur - being the booker, publicist, traveling to each city was fun and exhausting all at the same time.

The DVD hit stores and rental outlets in late September and the sales have been awesome!

I'm in the process of finalizing some world sales and the movie is being considered for a number of TV and VOD ops in the US.

The year ended on a high note as HT was listed on 8 top 10 lists for 2006 and was named the "best indie feature" of 2006 by Rue Morgue Magazine's staff and readership.

The self distro and the making of HT has opened a ton of doors for me. I'm currently working on two new scripts and have a tv show in development.

In the process of releasing HT, I decided to share some of the experience. I created a social open source project called the Workbook Project workbookproject.com to help bridge the gap between tech and filmmaking. One of the projects main goals is to show filmmakers how they can build their own audiences, which in turns helps them to promote and distribute their work. One of the main features of the workbook project is a podcast called "this conference is being recorded." I do a new edition every week and this past week featured episode 11. It was interesting story that sums up the current state of independent film in the US. M dot Strange and his DIY HD animated feature "We Are The Strange" had a world premiere at Sundance and well you gotta listen to believe what happened.

2007 is off to a great start. This weekend I fly to the Berlin International Film Festival, where I'll be speaking about the DIY experience and also staging a special screening of HT. Then I'm off to SXSW and a slew of special screenings where musicians score the movie live in a remix version the movie.

I think 2007 is going to be an amazing year for DIY filmmaking and distro and I can't wait to see what happens.

Thanks a lot for the comment Lance, great info. Your HT'06 distro work is a great bench mark for what 1 person + volunteers (+ maybe some pt/hired people sometimes?) team can do with a feature - self distribution wise, on a low/"no" budget. Perhaps the top of the accessible indie lo-budget level. HT'06 sounds like a great success.

I guess the next level of self-distro after that is hiring a distributor-for-hire & getting the film out to hundreds of theaters - which will/can cost a lot of money & can't be considered low/"no" budget anymore, of course (i am thinking about An American Haunting '06 type release - 1500 or so theaters simultaneously or very close to each other - the opening dates). But at that level it seems like it is semi-self distro since a lot of the work will be done by other people, but the filmmaker still calls the shots since the distributor is working for/paid by the filmmaker.

Anyway, added your comments to the main body of the '06 DIY distro Reflections post above. Glad you had an awesome DIY year in '06, the news of it makes it possible for others, like me, to dream of doing the same/something similar/of similar scale in '07.

Best of luck in '07. I need to go check out the Workbook again soon, very informative posts & interviews there.